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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23363074">Dear Maggie</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunk_on_writing/pseuds/drunk_on_writing'>drunk_on_writing</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>16th Century CE RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Diary/Journal, Epistolary, F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:21:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,365</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23363074</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/drunk_on_writing/pseuds/drunk_on_writing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On her 13th birthday, Anne Boleyn receives a diary from her mother. In these pages she talks about her daily life, her family, school, and love.</p><p>Modern AU</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anne Boleyn/Henry Percy 6th Earl of Northumberland, Anne Boleyn/Henry VIII of England</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello everyone!</p><p>I’ve loved history for a long time (and been running a historical blog for several years) and I’ve also loved writing for a long time so I finally decided to combine my two loves and write some historical fan fiction.</p><p>I think what sparked this idea was, I got an ask on my blog asking what I thought Anne Boleyn would be like if she lived in the modern world. And the more I thought about it, the more ideas I came up with and, this, this fic was born!</p><p>It’s told entirely through Anne’s diary entries so it’s all written in first person.</p><p>I hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>June 29, 2010</p>
<p>Dear Diary,</p>
<p>
  <strike>Hi there. My name is Anne Boleyn.</strike>
</p>
<p>I’ve never written in a diary before. My mom gave this to me as a birthday present (today, today’s my 13th bday!!). She said that “all girls should write in a diary” because it’s “important for your emotional development” whatever that means...</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t really know what to write. This feels so weird.</p>
<p>Later (same day)</p>
<p>Okay so for my summer reading I have to read The Diary of Anne Frank and she always started her entries with “Dear Kitty” and wrote as if she was writing <span class="u">to</span> someone and I thought that, if I did that too it would make writing in a diary less weird.</p>
<p>So...without further ado</p>
<p>Dear Maggie,</p>
<p>My name is Anne Margaret Boleyn and today is my 13th birthday. Other than this diary (from my mom), I also got a necklace from my dad (a simple gold chain with a “B” pendant—I love it so much I never want to take it off!!!!). My sister, Mary, gave me a first edition book of Emily Dickinson poems and my brother, George, got me a cabbage patch kid doll (probably on purpose; he’s so dumb sometimes... ;P).</p>
<p>I can’t believe I’m officially a teenager. It feels so strange to say that.</p>
<p>And yet, I don’t really feel any different than I did yesterday...when I was merely a pre-teen. Do you ever really feel older though? My mom is 40 and she’s always talking about how she still feels 20 sometimes. My grandma always says that feeling old is “just a state of mind.”</p>
<p>And speaking of my grandma, that’s who you’re named after. Her name is Margaret (which is also where my middle name comes from). She hates being called “grandma” because it makes her feel old so she makes us call her Maimeó which is the Irish word for grandmother (Maimeó is from Ireland; she moved to the states when she was 11 but she still has a really lovely Irish accent). Five years ago, Maimeó’s husband (and my grandpa) died so she moved in with us. I love having her here. She always tells the best stories and she always knows how to make you laugh even if you’re in a bad mood.</p>
<p>Do you want to know about my other family? It might give you some context for whenever I complain about them later ;D</p>
<p>I’m the youngest of three kids. My dad’s name is Thomas and my mom is Elizabeth. (They got married when my mom was only 20 years old!!! Can you believe that?!?!) I think I already mentioned that my siblings are Mary and George. Mary is the oldest (she’s six years older than me). She went off to college last year (the same year I started middle school). I really miss her a lot (or, at least, I <span class="u">did</span> because she’s home for the summer now). She goes to UCLA and lives in Los Angeles which I’m super jealous of because we live in Washington D.C. where it’s always cold and wet in the winter and so humid in the summer you can barely leave your house. Mary says that in California, every day is like paradise.</p>
<p>My brother George is three years older than me. We both go to the same school—Hampton Court Academy—which is a private boarding school in New York, not far from the city. A few Saturdays a year, students are allowed to take the bus into the city for the day—it’s awesome!</p>
<p>When I was younger, my dad served as the US ambassador to France for three years and while he was living there, I lived with him too and got to go to school there. I became fluent in French and learned all sorts of musical instruments and dancing when I was there. I’d love to go back and live there one day again!!!</p>
<p>My dad’s not an ambassador anymore but now serves as a Senator in Congress and my mom runs a preschool.</p>
<p>I thought about being a politician like my dad but it seems like a lot of hard work. He didn’t just go to regular college, he also went to law school and then spent a lot of years doing entry level jobs he hated to get to where he is now. I think politics are interesting but none of <span class="u">that</span> seems appealing to me at all. I really love music and I’ve written some poetry. Maybe I’ll move out to LA with my sister and become a songwriter!</p>
<p>Wouldn’t that be amazing?! It would be so glamorous! I’d get to dress up in fancy gowns and go to lavish parties and dance and sing!</p>
<p>We have dances at HCA every year for each grade level and each dance always has a theme. The 7th grade dance theme this year was superheroes. (It was going to be vampires but the 8th graders already took that one.) I went as Batgirl (mostly because I figured most of the other girls would be Wonder Woman [and I was right] so I wanted to go as someone no one else would be dressed as. Luckily, it’s a small school so there aren’t that many students to begin with but I was, in fact, the only Batgirl.) I didn’t mind the superhero theme, but I hope next year the theme is something a little more magical.</p>
<p>I’m gonna try to get on the dance committee next year—dance committee is a sub-committee of student council at HCA. I ran for 7th grade student council, but I didn’t win because George stuffed the ballot box and the teachers found out and disqualified me (and suspended him for 2 days). He voted for me 102 times and there were only 63 people in my class! Of <span class="u">course</span> he was gonna get caught...what was he <span class="u">thinking</span>?!?! When I run again next year I’m gonna make sure he stays as far away from the 8th grade voting booths as possible!!</p>
<p>Ugh there’s more I want to tell you but my mom is calling me for dinner so I have to go! I’ll write more tomorrow though, promise.</p>
<p>xo Anne</p><hr/>
<p><br/>
June 30, 2010</p>
<p>Dear Maggie,</p>
<p>I still don’t feel any older or wiser. I’ll let you know if I ever do.</p>
<p>I’ve already read through half the poems in the Emily Dickinson book Mary gave me. And—don’t tell George—I named my cabbage patch kid Molly and she slept in my bed with me last night.</p>
<p>I also got a birthday card from my Shelton cousins in the mail today (they said it was delayed because they were on vacation when they sent it). Inside the card was a Bed, Bath &amp; Beyond gift card from my Aunt Nancy and Uncle John and also a charm bracelet to match ones my cousins Mady and Meg have.</p>
<p>My Uncle James wanted to get me a motorcycle but my dad said “absolutely not” so he just got me a Hot Topic gift card instead. Uncle James is my dad’s younger brother. He was one of those “late in life miracle babies” so he’s a lot younger than Dad and Aunt Nancy. He’s really cool, though. He’s not married so he lives pretty nomadically. Sometimes he’ll just show up at our house without warning and then stay for 3 weeks before disappearing again. Every time he does it, my dad always gets really mad and says this’ll be the last time he’ll ever let Uncle James stay with us...but it never actually is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (I think Dad secretly likes it when Uncle James comes to stay because he always makes us do fun things we wouldn’t normally do and Dad acts like he hates it but I think he actually loves it)</p>
<p>From my school friends, I got some more gift cards, some jewelry, and some makeup. I even got gifts from my friends in France I still keep in touch with. My best friends when I was there were Renée Orléans and her older sister, Claude, and Marguerite Valois. Renée and Claude sent me some gifts that...I can’t really explain because they’re based on kind of a long story... XP. They also said they wanted to get tickets to a Coeur de Pirate concert, but decided not to because they didn’t think my parents would let me fly all the way to France by myself...not after that movie Taken. Marguerite got me some books by some French writers and she also gave me drafts of her own writing. Marguerite is an <span class="u">amazing</span> writer and I know she’s gonna become a super famous author one day and, like, change the world! I always love reading her stuff!!</p>
<p>(Later)</p>
<p>I know you wouldn’t know this because this is a diary and not a text chain, but I’m actually writing this hours after writing the above BECAUSE...</p>
<p>I GOT A CELL PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>I had been begging my parents for one for MONTHS (maybe even a year) and they kept saying “when you’re old enough”. Both Mary and George got cell phones when they were 13 so I thought Mom and Dad would get me one yesterday, but they didn’t. BUT THEN TODAY they surprised me! They told us that they were taking us out for lunch and all throughout lunch they never said anything so I was completely shocked when, after lunch, we drove to the Verizon store and they said I could pick out a phone!!!</p>
<p>I’ve spent the last few hours playing with it and texting all my friends! My parents are so old-fashioned, all my other friends have had cell phones for, like, a year or two. I’m, like, the last one of all my friends to get one. But I finally have one and I’m SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>It’ll be so much easier to keep in touch with all my friends during breaks. It used to be, the only way we could talk during breaks was through e-mail and phone calls (and the phone calls had to be kept to a minimum because some of my HCA friends live all over the country and Dad said long-distance calls were expensive). Not to mention how much easier it’ll be to stay in touch with Claude and Renée and Marguerite. I don’t know what international texting is like but I guess I’ll find out!</p>
<p>Oh have I mentioned the family vacation yet? I just checked yesterday’s entry...no I haven’t.</p>
<p>Every year my family takes a big family vacation during the summer. We’ve gone all over the world because my dad says it’s important for us to have “culture”. Usually, during the summer time, we go somewhere cooler so this year we’re going to Australia—I’m so excited!!! I’ve never been! But anyway, we’ll be leaving for that trip tomorrow. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to write while we’re there and we’re gonna be there for pretty much the whole month so you might not hear from me in a while (metaphorically speaking), but I’ll try to write if I can. And if I can’t, I promise I’ll tell you all about the trip when we get back!</p>
<p>xo Anne</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Fic notes:</p><p>I decided to set the story in the US because I’m American so it was just easier for me than trying to pretend I know the first thing about 21st century British culture lol.</p><p>So this fic is typed, but I wanted it to feel like it was handwritten, so I used underlining to emphasize instead of Italics and old-fashioned emoticons instead of emojis.</p><p>Historical Easter eggs:</p><p>We don’t actually know for sure when the three Boleyn children were born or when Thomas and Elizabeth Boleyn were married, but I believe Thomas and Elizabeth were married in 1500, Mary was born in 1501, George in 1504, and Anne in 1507 so, in this fic, I decided Thomas and Elizabeth were married in 1990, Mary was born in 1991, George in 1994, and Anne in 1997 (I pushed it back 10 years because the timeline of this fic is gonna stretch well into Anne’s adulthood and I didn’t want to be writing like 10-15 years in the future). Also, the date of June 29 is just a random day I came up with off the top of my head.</p><p>Elizabeth Howard is thought to have been born c. 1480, so she would’ve been 20 at the time of her wedding to Thomas Boleyn (assuming the wedding date of 1500). So in this fic, she was born in 1970.</p><p>Margaret Butler was born c. 1454 in Kilkenny, Ireland. She married William Boleyn in 1465 and the couple lived at Hever Castle. William Boleyn died in 1505 and Margaret continued to live in the family home even when her son, Thomas, and his family moved in. So in this fic, since she was 11 when she married William Boleyn, I had her moving to the US at that age. I also made William’s death 2005 and since she lived with Thomas in real life, I had her move in with the family in the fic.</p><p>Hampton Court Academy is named after Hampton Court Palace.</p><p>Thomas Boleyn served as the English ambassador to France from 1518-1521. After returning to England, he was appointed to the King’s Privy Council.</p><p>Margaret and William Boleyn had 10 children—Anne, Thomas, John, Anthony, Jane, Alice, Margaret, William, James, and Edward. Of their 10 children, all but John and Anthony survived to adulthood. Even though Thomas had 7 siblings who were alive during all those years (in fact, Thomas was the first of all his siblings to die), in order to condense the number of characters and make the family tree a little less convoluted, I decided to only include the 2 other siblings that we know the most about—Anne and James. Now, I also wanted to decrease the number of repeated names so I changed Anne’s name to Nancy (a common nickname for Anne is Nan which could also be a nickname for Nancy). Anne married John Shelton and they also had 10 children, but again, to keep things simple, I decided to only include their 2 most well-known children, Mary and Margaret. Margaret was known as Madge during her life, but I figured most 21st century teenage girls probably wouldn’t go by that, so I changed her name to Meg which is another nickname for Margaret. And Mary became Mady to, again, reduce the number of repeated names.<br/>James was the second-youngest Boleyn child and was about 16 years younger than Thomas. He actually was married in real life but his wife was a total bitch so screw her. (He married Elizabeth Wood and, although James was a Reformer like the rest of his family, Elizabeth was not. During the investigation against Anne in 1536, Elizabeth testified against her and was one of the 5 “unsympathetic” ladies sent to spy on her in the Tower.)</p><p>During Anne’s time in France from 1514-1522, she served Queen Claude (wife of Francis I). During this time, she also became close to Claude’s younger sister, Renée, and Francis I’s sister, Marguerite of Nevarre. Marguerite was a well-known writer during her lifetime and used her writing to advocate for the Reformist cause.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>July 8, 2010</p><p>Dear Maggie,</p><p>G’day, mate! Greetings from down unda!</p><p>Hehe XD</p><p>We’ve been in Australia for a week now but I never want to leave!! Even though it’s winter time here, everything is still so beautiful!</p><p>We’ve primarily been staying in Sydney but we have plans to take mini-trips to other parts of the country—including the Outback!</p><p>Did you know that not very many people actually say g’day? And <span class="u">no</span> <span class="u">one</span> says “shrimp on the barbie”. Also, we haven’t even seen a single Outback Steakhouse!</p><p>But, before you swear off Australia forever, you should know that Dad and George got to play a didgeridoo! Unfortunately, a lot of Aboriginal cultures consider it taboo for women to play didgeridoos in public, so Mom, Mary, and I weren’t allowed to play. (You know, it’s always amazed me how cultures that are completely separate from each other and developed in totally different parts of the world can still have such a universal hatred of women. It completely blows my mind! Of all things, why does <span class="u">that</span> have to be the one common factor shared by all cultures around the world?!) Anyway...even though we weren’t allowed to play, it was still fun watching Dad and George play (well, <span class="u">struggle</span> to play is probably a better description)! George actually caught onto it pretty quickly, but still wasn’t that great at it. Dad just sucked through and through =P)</p><p>So far, we’ve mostly just been doing a lot of sight-seeing. We took a boat tour of the harbor, we’ve done some shopping around town, and on Saturday we’re seeing a show at the Opera House!</p><p>I promised all my friends I’d get them something from Australia so I’ve been diligently looking for gifts for all of them. One of my friends from HCA, Beth Holland, asked me to bring her back a live koala bear. Sorry Beth, I don’t think I can make that happen.</p><p>Later</p><p>George keeps putting Vegemite on all his food. He even put it on his cake. I almost threw up.</p><p>Later (again)</p><p>Mom, Mary, and I decided to take a midnight stroll. Mary told us about her new boyfriend, Casey Williams. It’s so weird to hear her talking about being in a relationship. Like, I know she had boyfriends in high school, but she sounds so adult when talking about this relationship.</p><p>She seems to really like him though. Apparently he makes her laugh. He seems nice. I wonder if we’ll ever get to meet him.</p><p>Between you and me, Mary’s changed so much. She used to always be the life of the party. She was really loud and outgoing and friendly (sometimes a little <span class="u">too</span> friendly, if you know what I mean). But ever since she’s gone off to school, she’s still outgoing and fun-loving, but in a slightly more reserved way...if that makes sense? She still likes to have fun but she doesn’t intentionally draw as much attention to herself anymore. To be honest, I like this new Mary a lot more. Sometimes I used to think that she was so extroverted it was actually kind of annoying.</p><p>Toned down! That’s the phrase I’m looking for. She’s still Mary, she’s just a little more toned down version of herself.</p><p>I hope this Casey guy treats her well and respects her. And if he doesn’t...well, Mary may be too girly to throw down, but I’m not.</p><p>xo Anne</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
August 1, 2010</p><p>Dear Maggie,</p><p>I warned you I probably wouldn’t have a ton of time to write while in Australia.</p><p>We’re back in the US now. Back to swampy, humid, D.C. :(</p><p>We haven’t even been home for a whole day yet and I already miss Australia! It was absolutely incredible!</p><p>Oh my god, we did everything! We went to Melbourne and Perth and Hobart (that’s in Tasmania). We went out to a farm in the Outback. I got to hold a koala bear and hang out with kangaroos. We went to an opal mining farm and I got some really beautiful jewelry (a matching earring and necklace set). And OMG, Dad surprised us with a mini-trip to New Zealand. We took a ferry over and we got to see Auckland and some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen in my life!!! It made me really want to go on a long trip just to New Zealand one day! (Or maybe just move there lol =D)</p><p>Oh I love traveling! I love seeing new things and learning about different cultures! I’d love to have a job that required me to travel.</p><p>Ugh but now that we’re back home, I have to start thinking about school again =(((. The new year starts the Tuesday after Labor Day but we have to have our stuff moved in the week before. Thankfully, you live in the same dorm with the same roommates for all 6 years that you’re at HCA (unless you request a room transfer), so I already know where my room is and who my roommates are.</p><p>But still...as much as I love school and I can’t wait to see all my friends again, I also can’t wait until I graduate and then I don’t have to worry about homework or grades anymore!!</p><p>This year I’ll be in 8th grade. Aside from the normal gen ed classes (Geometry, US History 2, English 8 AP, and Physical Science [which is supposed to be a combo of both chemistry and physics; George said it’s way easier than taking the individual Chemistry or Physics classes]), I’m also taking Spanish, Physical Education 2 (the school requires 2 years of PE, George held off taking his PE requirement until last year so we’re actually gonna be taking that class together), and Mixed Chorus (all the choirs at HCA are audition-only; last year I was in Female Chorus which is the all girl one, Mixed has both boys and girls. There’s also other choirs like A Capella and Chambers which are the hardest to get into because they’re the most selective, it’s extremely rare that anyone below 10th grade gets into one of those two). Most of the classes I’m taking this year are basically the same as what I took last year. HCA is kind of unique in that 7-9th grade you take all the “general” classes, but then starting in 10th grade you get to customize your courses a lot more and you only have to take the classes you’re really interested in. It’s almost like college.</p><p>George is gonna be in 11th grade. Aside from the PE classes (which he claimed he only held off because he didn’t have time in his schedule but I think he was actually hoping he could get out of it altogether), he’s taking Classics, AP European History, Economics, AP Psychology, Drawing, and Computer Sciences (which seems totally random considering none of his other classes are tech-related). I don’t know what he’s planning on majoring in at college (or if he’ll even go to college at all) but he’s still got a whole other year after this one to figure it out.</p><p>Oh and I don’t think I ever told you what Mary was studying at UCLA...she’s studying Law. I don’t think she’s gonna go down the political path like Dad, but yeah, she’s pre-law. Which is so weird because for a long time she said she wanted to go into Cosmetology and that’s originally why she applied to UCLA, but then at the last minute, she did a complete 180 and decided to switch her major to Law. We were all very shocked. None of us knew she was even interested in that subject.</p><p>But she seems to be liking it so far. She’s already finished a full year and hasn’t changed her mind yet so we’ll see ¯\_(ツ)_/¯</p><p>I don’t know what I’ll study in college. Or where I’ll go to college. My dad told me, before I started school last year, that I should start to think about it right now, but my mom told me not to worry about it so soon and that I should just enjoy exploring my interests. Well, I love music so I’ll probably go into that. Or maybe I’ll surprise myself and do something like what Mary did. Who knows? As much as I love my dad, to be honest, I’m kinda with my mom on this one...I don’t really want to worry about it right now. Ive always been a straight A student so I’ll probably be able to get into any school I want regardless of what I want to study.</p><p>I smell bacon. I’m gonna go investigate.</p><p>xo Anne</p><p>(P.S. My mom was making a “breakfast casserole” for dinner. It had bacon, eggs, hash browns, sausage, and other breakfast-type foods in it. It was delicious.)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Beth Holland is Elizabeth “Bess” Holland who served Anne when she was Queen and was also the mistress of Anne’s uncle, the Duke of Norfolk.</p><p>Casey Williams = William Carey (there’s a reason I changed his name like that which will make sense later)</p><p>Re: Mary studying Law. I feel like Mary gets a bad rep. It seems like most people portray her or think of her as being frivolous and even kind of air-headed and I feel like that reputation really isn’t deserved at all. Like, yeah, historically we don’t know much about her, but she was a Boleyn and considering how intelligent and well-educated her siblings were it seems impossible that she wouldn’t be just the same. So I decided to give Mary a little more credit and have her pursuing a more academic and “serious” career.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading!</p><p>I always appreciate feedback so please leave a comment and don’t forget to hit that kudos button! ;)</p><p>Find me on Tumblr: anne-the-queen-daily</p></blockquote></div></div>
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